At least 2,593 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since the start of the Kiev’s military operation against anti-government forces there started in mid-April, according to a new estimate by the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights.

The death toll includes civilians, members of the Ukrainian
troops and also fighters in the anti-government forces.

"The trend is clear and alarming. There is a significant
increase in the death toll in the east," Ivan Simonovic,
U.N. Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights, told
journalists.

"The current number of killed is 2,593 - close to 3,000 if we
include the 298 victims of the MH17 (Malaysian airliner) plane
crash," he said.

The report, issued on Friday, August 29, 2014,
and covering the period July 16 to August 17, condemns the
killing and wounding of civilians in urban areas, which have
lately turned into battlefields.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has called on
both sides of the conflict to lay down their arms.

“There is an urgent need to end the fighting and violence in
the eastern regions, before more civilians are harmed or forced
to flee, or face intolerable hardships trapped inside the
conflict zones,” she said.

Pillay has urged all of the military units fighting in eastern
Ukraine against “deliberately targeting civilians.”

“All those involved in the hostilities in the affected areas
of the east must at all times comply with the principles of
distinction, proportionality and precaution. This is particularly
important in densely-populated areas,” she said.

The report says half the population of the cities of Lugansk and
Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, have now left. However, evacuation has
not been easy and not all of those wanting to flee were able to
do so.

Some civilians lost their lives while trying to escape the
violence, as the report says refugees were targeted and killed on
their way out of conflict zones.

“Supposedly ‘safe’ corridors established by the Ukrainian
forces to enable residents to flee from these cities traversed
areas where the fighting was ongoing. Civilians using these
corridors were subsequently killed or injured,” the UN HR
office statement on the report reads.

The report accuses the anti-government forces in Ukraine’s east
of allegedly preventing residents from leaving war zones,
conducting attacks from densely-populated areas, and obstructing
the international investigation into the crash of the Malaysian
Airlines flight MH17.

Both sides have been blamed for deaths of civilians, abductions
and torture.

The report also focuses on pro-Kiev volunteer battalions under
the Ministry of Defense or under the Interior Ministry. According
to the document, those forces are responsible for multiple human
rights violations.

“The relevant ministries should exercise more control over
these volunteer battalions, in particular instructing them in
international humanitarian law,” the report reads.

It also urges Kiev against reprisals targeting the populations of
territories which were once under the control of the
anti-government forces.

“Military prosecutors and the Security Service of Ukraine
have already investigated over 1,500 cases of various offences
committed by local officials and citizens in the east, and more
than 150 people have been prosecuted,” the report reads.
“Residents of these regions back under the control of the
government report the fear of reprisals, the lack of confidence
that their own cases will be investigated, and fear that impunity
will continue with no accountability.”